Wednesday, 30 November 2016

The political situation here in Latvia has come to what seems to be a boiling point. The gap between the middle class and the political elite has grown into a full blown Mariana trench. Every single tax payer is fucking pissed about the new tax policy and budget that will take place from next year. I cannot blame them for it, the government institutions take away more and more of our hard-earned money with every year in a form of numerous different taxes and give back so little to the society that it just doesn't seem fair. On the other hand, life has never been fair so you just have to man the fuck up and deal with it. If you cannot accept this then you are weak. Dismissing the parliament wouldn't change much. The reality is that the problem lies much deeper than the people running this country. Voting in the same shitheads but in different suits will change shit. There just has to be a better way to run the country and you know it! The deputies are not the representatives of the "people", they are there for their "contributors" who got them into the office in the first place. In fact I'm 27 years old now, 6 parliament elections have happened since I've been somewhat conscious and I can tell you this - very little to almost nothing has changed no matter who was behind the wheel: Nationalists, Social democrats, Liberals, "Farmers"; NOTHING. Literally how stupid do you have to be to believe that things will change this time if they have never changed before? Promises get broken every 4 years and no one seems to bat an eye or remember that. We've all been given an illusion of choice as if our vote actually means something when in reality we're just able to elect a lesser evil and hope for the best. Hope that we'll get a healthcare, hope that they won't take away the funding for the school our kids go to, hope that if we get disabled we could still pay our bills, hope, hope, hope...

Stop whining about things, you can always find someone somewhere who has had it much worse than you and is still far more successful. Think of what an ideal society means to you and try building it around yourself, involve in its processes as much as possible, think about your individual goals, what you can do and what sacrifices you can make to achieve them, fuck everything else!

Wednesday, 16 November 2016

I've been busier than a one legged man in a kicking contest these last few weeks. I don't even remember when was the last time I just sat on my couch in the evening doing absolutely nothing to be honest. Also the recent situation at work leaves me with a notion that I'm surrounded by irresponsible idjits who couldn't give a shit or two about the things they do even if someone's life depended on it. On the other hand me and Armands have been tracking drums and bass for SH's upcoming album, we are already four tracks in which is nice. Anyhow, I needed something heavy, something bluesey, something that has this fuzzed-out swagger to it to keep my spirit up and make me headbang harder than Ozzy during the Black Sabbath's Iron Man intro. Long story short I went through my music collection and wishlist on Bandcamp and found a few long forgotten gems - four albums that will make you tap along with your foot and headbang like a motherfucker. Thank me later, peace the fuck out!

Good morning doomsters around the globe, here are some of the dirtiest and bluesiest tunes since Wizard, Windhand, and Dopethrone. This is loud, this is heavy, this is gritty...this is DOOM at its very best!It will kick the shit out of you and boot-stomp your vag in a most violent way possible. Shout out to guys from Dopethrone for helping me find this!TABARNAK!

Friday, 4 November 2016

Crippled Black Phoenix (CBP) is one of those few bands which I have very mixed feelings for. In my own exclusive opinion more than half of their stuff is a total mehfest while the other half resonates heavily with my inner self and remains one of the most fascinating things I've heard since ever. It is possible that I will like more of their releases later on in my life and that I'm just not mature enough to properly enjoy it at the given moment, or I simply have my poor upbringing to blame it for, who knows. Anyways, besides one of the best (if not the best) interpretations of Pink Floyd's Echoes, there are only two albums by them which I consider being excellent, mind-blowing even. The first thing these albums share is that both of them have wild beasts on their covers, and metalheads love wild beasts, and skulls, and flames, and motorcycles and other stereotypical things. Be honest, how many times have you picked an album just because it had a big, bad skull or a severed goat's head depicted on it? I know, I have! Numerous times actually, and this time was no exception as well. So a wolf for I, Vigilante and a bear for their latest release BRONZE, which was an insta-buy for me today as soon as I heard the first two songs. The second thing they share is an uncompromised songwriting in which every single instrument blends in elegantly to create musical compositions which even the Swedes Ghost would be jealous of. Turn to Stone from Bronze and We Forgotten Who We Are from I, Vigilante still give me chills even when I think about them and the latter one is the only song I've sung to while being completely sober. If I would have to describe their sound on these two albums I would say that they sound like a heavier and more melancholy version of Pink Floyd combined with songwriting of Ghost and experimentation abilities of Neurosis. Give these two releases a shot.